It's been a week of war in Iran. Where are we?
-The US & Israel have accumulated tactical successes. The Islamic Repubic is not on the verge of collapse, but it is much weaker.
-Again: how to translate this into sustainable strategic success is at best uncertain.
The number of civilians killed in Iran following US and Israeli strikes in the country since last Saturday climbed to 1,172 as of 5 p.m. ET Friday, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). https://cnn.it/4cuUVM4
Welcome to my mind palace
Told DW News that the Trump admin is merely muddling through a set of incoherent objectives and strategies in the war on Iran.
youtu.be/Yf7YkT4s1Zg?...
Re: political theology in Iran I just picked this up by @hbanai.bsky.social and it’s excellent; very tough to find good analysis of these sources
(Banai’s book is also endorsed by Nader Hashemi, author of one of the classic recent studies on Islam and liberal democracy)
“Let us stand, therefore, with fear of God and keep guard over our heart, practicing the virtues which check the wickedness of our enemies.”
-St. Isaiah the Solitary (d. 479/91; Philokalia vol. 1)
Lots of great insights in this thread
We could have been focused on backing Ukraine, thereby undermining Russia. Instead, we’re focused on attacking Iran, and therefore allowing Russia to undermine us.
60 cent jump from last week here in the Burg today
We asked the Pentagon a straightforward question: did Centcom use Claude to target an elementary school for annihilation?
They refused to answer.
Does Wofford need to bring democracy to USC? lmk if yall need a peacekeeping force
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Exclusive: US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on February 28 but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation reut.rs/40b19JN
lol
“Popper’s exaggerated polemic”
“Christian nation” isn’t much different from “Islamic Republic”
A good point re: those in that specific position; my concern here is that we as Americans do not find technical ways to morally write this off, otherwise we will excuse not just these but countless other innocent deaths.
If we can’t feel the moral weight of these incidents, we will repeat them iow.
…our moral liability as a nation, it *doesn’t matter* if the strike was accidental, target misidentification, etc. Americans have got to recognize this, or there’s really no point at all in even distinguishing between just and unjust war.
Not a critique of the analysis here but I’m trying to empathize a point that is getting lost:
If someone breaks into someone’s house, and accidentally kills a person while doing so, the killing *cannot* be justified bc the reason why you’re there in the first place is unjustifiable.
In terms of…
Important analysis (gift link) that lends support to the increasingly likely conclusion that it was an American missile that struck the school.
I’m not an expert on international law. But as a Christian, I think the moral judgement is clear. *We* bear moral responsibility bc the war is unjust.
One might even say a special military action
It’s a classic! All his work is great; my favorite of his is actually this one; the last chapter is still one of the best descriptions of medieval political theory ever written imo:
Book recs on the history of modern Iran:
"We must be willing to criticize the Islamic Republic of Iran as though Islamophobia does not exist...And we must be willing to name and fight Islamophobia as though the Islamic Republic of Iran does not exist" would fix a lot of media discourse right now
Excellent piece; and the two commitments described here works as well for Muslim-majority nations and Islamophobia:
"We must be willing to criticize Israel as though antisemitism does not exist...And we must be willing to name and fight antisemitism as though the state of Israel does not exist"
Including a great analysis by @arashtehran.bsky.social
On the CIA backed coup in Iran in 1953: the flagship journal of Middle East Studies did a roundtable on the topic just two years ago, which includes authoritative summaries of the events, state of the field questions etc- and its all free and open access here:
What they usually miss imo is that God will not ask them about their ability to interpret the book of Revelation but instead about their ability to interpret the beatitudes
Yes; and in particular I’m seeing the sudden influence of a certain apocalyptic strain of Islamophobic theology that’s been developing in conservative evangelicalism since the 2000s; the quotes below are just from the past few days
